Atomic Heart (Zero Punctuation)

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This week on Zero Punctuation, Yahtzee reviews Atomic Heart.
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[@theescapist]

Watch this week's episode of Zero Punctuation on Metroid Prime Remastered. www.escapistmagazine.com/metroid-prime-remastered-zero-punctuation/ Watch it early on KZbin and support the channel via KZbin Memberships or Patreon starting at $2/month.

[@Ijustusethistocommentstuff]

Yahtzee also forgot that 2002 was also the year where Jojo's bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean published the volume first containing C-Moon, and the start of pulblication for Pokemon Adventures Yellow in English.

[@darthjekyll3648]

what about the fembots

[@Fugged_Up]

4:42 "atomic fart" "no that's beneath me" Yahtzee managing to stay humble what a guy

[@TheDSasterX]

My humble hero

[@jex-the-notebook-guy1002]

But what if it was literally beneath him?

[@TheDSasterX]

@@jex-the-notebook-guy1002 Guess there won't be any more punctuation then...

[@No__47]

He says "Atomic Shart" literally less than 20 seconds after that statement. and that was the joke and now I've ruined it by explaining it

[@Fugged_Up]

​@@No__47 a shart is much worse than a fart

[@legomaniac213]

What makes the comparison of the leader of Soviet Rapture to Andrew Ryan even funnier is that Andrew Ryan actually was Russian and fled to the US to escape persecution.

[@viljamtheninja]

Which of course is a reference to Ayn Rand who was Russian and fled to the US to escape persecution.

[@maxwyght1840]

@@viljamtheninja Ayn Rand Ryan Andrew

[@First-Last_name]

​@@maxwyght1840 Imagine if Ayn Rand tried to found a Utopian society 😳

[@ryanjones_rheios]

@@First-Last_name As much as I respect elements of objectivism? She'd have to understand the regular exchange of human emotions first, and probably come to more open terms with her own suppressed cnc fetish (I really liked the Fountainhead as a kid but its pretty telling in that regard). And then it's still probably fail because she'd hypocrite it up in the same way Andrew Ryan did, by trying so hard to stop some element developing that she didn't like that she recreated the original problem. Ryan could have seriously saved himself an entire revolt if he'd just let people have their religion under the understanding that interaction with it had to be voluntary and that joining disqualified you from leadership positions. Give them a choice about which was more important to *them* instead of treating it as contraband. It wouldn't have fixed the other issues cropping up (such as addiction - which I think there were other utopia-functional solutions for) but I do think that was the big one that gave Fontaine the ammo he needed to start his revolt.

[@aaronbasham6554]

​@@ryanjones_rheios so the reason the revolution happened is because we have to Blake Logar for causing the Horus Heresy. Got it

[@Xero525]

The main character is just a poorly translated Soviet Duke Nukem

[@ZachGatesHere]

NGL that makes me want to play this even more lol

[@lncomus]

Huh? Isn't this video a few minutes old? How is this comment from days ago

[@kgniku503]

​@@lncomus membership perks

[@Memory169]

@@lncomus If you subscribe to them you can see the ZPs the week they come out, rather than a week later

[@TheOneGreat]

I absolutely love the protagonist. He flips between heavy sarcasm and barely contained rage constantly. I was chuckling the whole way through.

[@samlevy9897]

I literally lost count of how many times Sergei’s dialogue had me screaming “why are you such an asshole” at the computer.

[@InsomniacStephens141]

The entire portion of the game where you chase down petrov was awful. Sergei berates him, causes the love of his life to leave him and refuses to even hear him out. Then he kills himself and within MINUTES sergei is like "oh shit maybe I should have listened to him, he had a point" I've never wanted to strangle a videogame character as much as that moment

[@mercenarygundam1487]

​@Aqua Ravenheart So basically the average Putler mindset. Minus the realisation of I'm an ass.

[@dengawr6000]

​​​@@mercenarygundam1487 imagine being a brainwasht westbot. Petrov created all this mess, killed all people by activation of combat protocol with remark that he and hes fiancee will be exception. He is crazy, and you can see how he lose more and more sanity. Aaaaand he is a trur hero for you lmao

[@LewdSCP1471A]

@@InsomniacStephens141 I honestly love this, sergei is such a fucking idiot its adorable, and it takes the guy who he thinks is the bad guy killing himself to think "hey wait a fucking minute"

[@user-lm1gl5dg5y]

Well, in Dying Light the MC also has an IQ of a hamster, but at least other parts of the game were good

[@DanGamingFan2846]

I'm surprised Yahtzee never once mentioned the blatant fanservice that was the Robot Twins. I guess those jokes are beneath him now.

[@rich520]

What about the talking fridge?

[@TheGood747]

Both of them was beneath him

[@skyounkin]

I wish they were beneath me... and on top of me... and behind me... ::EDIT:: My like of your comment got you to 69 likes Nice, and you're welcome.

[@tahutoa]

​@@skyounkin lame

[@skyounkin]

@@tahutoa And?

[@axelsteel1193]

It's good when the MC asks the glove genuine questions and we get worldbuilding from their conversations, but he flips on a switch way too often. In one conversation, he'll ask an interesting question, then the glove answers him as best as it can, and the MC just argues and curses with the glove for answering his question, in the next sentence. That's what irked me the most in the game.

[@jamess5140]

I still love how the main character will go from mumbling and bitching about scientists fucking around with people's lives, to 20 minutes later being dumbfounded that scientists would ever do anything that wasn't for the benefit of humanity. The characterization is so inconsistent

[@SympleSymon]

"What can you tell me about this, Charles?" "Well Major, I actually have extensive knowledge of this particular subject --" "UGH SHUT THE FUCK UP, GLOVE, WHAT DO YOU KNOW ANYWAYS"

[@chrisdaughen5257]

Isn't that what happens in Forespoken? Charles is just Cuff: the MC hates them and they hate being the MC's hand for the whole game and by the end become an amorphous god-entity as the "real bad guy".

[@Stroggoii]

It's annoying because it's realistic.

[@chrisdaughen5257]

@@StroggoiiTotally. I'll never trust my right hand again.

[@jaredfreeman6017]

I’m a little disappointed Yahtzee didn’t make a “all foam based PLANNED economy” joke

[@aceroy9195]

He's losing his edge

[@scottage_teaches_jujutsu]

A series of ineffectual 5 year foams

[@MaximeDeClercq]

​@@nyx7694 If you mean with WartyHog Inheritance the game this review is about (I suck at sarcasme. Yes, I realize the irony of watching Yahtzee), Yahtzee mentioned the 2 button and bossfight ending.

[@uwu_smeg]

​@@aceroy9195 very silly lol

[@brainflash1]

Well this explains why all the trailers for this game never gave any fucking context for what was happening. Even the first Bioshock had bothered to have a prerendered trailer instead of gameplay footage, and it showed us we were trapped in an undersea city with unambiguously hostile inhabitants. All Atomic Heart gave us were a relentless series of smash cuts of bashing flying roombas with a lead pipe.

[@BetaJackMaxis]

To be fair your description does make me think of an awesome time, but more in the vein of Drunken Robot Pornography.

[@VeritabIlIti]

I mean, that's pretty much how the main character seems to feel. In a way, the total lack of feeling context probably symbolizes how the devs feel living in motherfucking Russia

[@Fakan]

I feel like the only thing I've seen of Atomic Heart is robo ass and tits. Oh, and the briefest gameplay footage of Bioshock.

[@1gient]

Isn't that how most trailers are these days?

[@PosterityIslesNews]

there's a lot to criticise about the game but this is not it, lmao

[@MatthewSanthos]

That last hittler joke was gold.

[@TheOneGreat]

The atrocities he committed are not even 100 years old and people already don't know how to spell his name. Heh

[@madkoala2130]

@@TheOneGreat do you realize that he is trying to go around KZbins ban hammer about "naughty words" (since when did mustache man's surname became "naughty" word, i dont know)

[@NekuZX]

@@TheOneGreat I'm guessing it was intentionally mispelled, so youtube wouldn't hide the comment automatically.

[@Alikaoz]

It's now in a Swiss bank.

[@sachyriel]

But it isn't historically accurate: mustache man told the 6th Army to stay at Stalin-city and they died instead of lived to fight another day. I'm no goose-stepper fan but it's acknowledged as a mistake, not that he could have won in the end it's just mustache man didn't turn around and go home, very much the opposite.

[@The5lacker]

Oh man, I can't wait to hear Yahtzee's opinions on the adventures of Bioski Shockovich!

[@First-Last_name]

He joined a russian mercenary group, then grew up to become a beautiful patch of sunflowers in Luhansk oblast 🌻

[@blakksheep736]

Pfffffffffffffft

[@dimitargaydadzhiev878]

As someone from the prior soviet block, the game is blatantly not communist, but it's made in the vision of Soviet retro futurism. I found the setting of the game very familiar, outworldish and hilarious.

[@DanaTheInsane]

Soviet Retro futurism always fascinates me. It tends to lead me to buy soviet Wrist watches for some reason. Some of which are frankly bizarre. It always feels like something from a parallel universe.

[@lukeskywalker987]

Not Communist but definitely pro Soviet. Which makes sense considering Soviet Nostalgia and iconography in Russia deliberately ignores the Communism in favor of showing it as an Imperial Russian superpower.

[@dimitargaydadzhiev878]

@@lukeskywalker987 The game is set in the theme of Soviet Retro futurism, of course the soviet union is going to be portrayed as a superpower, it was one historically. With games like Wolfenstein, the protagonist is an outsider, therefore the developers can leverage criticism from outside the system. With Atomic Heart, your character works for the state. The setting itself is enough criticism, with creepy robots and propaganda everywhere. I don't know how you came to the conclusion the game is pro soviet, when its setting is simply Soviet SciFi

[@lukeskywalker987]

@@dimitargaydadzhiev878 Soviet Science Fiction is inherently pro Soviet since the USSR heavily regulated media to ensure that anything released would fit into their propaganda narratives. Communism itself is unpopular even among Russian Nationalists, so I think whether or not the game is pro Soviet comes down to if the game portrays a Soviet utopia ruined by Communism or addresses the USSR'S MANY other issues like the blatant racism, imperialism, and attempts to erase other distinct ethnic and cultural identities. And yes I understand that America is guilty of many of these problems too, but while it's not the game's fault, current political events are drawing a lot more attention and scrutiny than it would normally get.

[@dimitargaydadzhiev878]

@@lukeskywalker987 sure it was, but then the game's setting is inherently biased, whilst the game as a piece of media might disagree. Edit: Didn't see full comment I don't think the game has the onus to combat its setting, not all games ought to take a political stance. Sometimes, more interesting stories come when a setting is played straight, and the consumer of the media is allowed to form their own opinions. Furthermore, there would have been little value in criticism of the USSR, we know it's evil, it is self evident in the state of current Russia, and the Russian people as a whole have immensely suffered under it.

[@bird3713]

I was totally putting off work to watch this video, and Yahtzee called me out for it

[@noonehere8416]

Me before watching this video: I can put aside sending off this email for 5 min as I watch this :)! It’s ok no one will know Yahtzee, looking me dead in the eyes through the screen: *I KNOW*

[@jaker1818]

That was when I dropped my like. The bastard got me.

[@josephpeters2619]

Same lol

[@jessicawilson1751]

I'm also working, but I'm at the point of "hury up and wait" bit of my job... I need to kill time somehow while sitting at my desk. Hooray for work from home jobs.

[@NicofTime...]

I'm on my scheduled 4 hour break

[@rmartinson19]

Am I the only one who appreciates the delicious irony that one of Yahtzee's complaints was that each line of dialogue "flows straight into the next with no pauses, which occasionally feels like being beaten to death with a malfunctioning, third-party knockoff speak-and-spell"?

[@DarkRonnie]

It is funny, but the main difference is 10min vid vs 10hour game 😉 (no idea about game's actual length)

[@olwiz]

Someone HAD to give him some taste of it- but it flew completely over him. He probably was too frustrated complaining non stop to have any self-reflection realization of how amongst all those robots skins/asses shine was a mirror to himself.

[@ryancbarrett96]

I do now.

[@metagames.errata7777]

Don't always scroll comments, but I was surprised how far down I had to go to find this one. Only 9th down, but I sorta expected top 3, if not number 1.

[@Herrikias]

Is it ok for me to replay Tomb Raider while only listening to The Cranberries, or do I have to play every Irish band all at once?

[@si_w8201]

It should come with a U2 album pre-installed like that time with iTunes...

[@dasbouef13]

This is the kind of dialogue I’ve come to expect from a Zero Punctuation comment section. Bravo.

[@CharlieFoxtrot06]

On balance, you should throw in a little U2 from time to time, though it's perfectly acceptable to keep it The Joshua Tree. Though, their cover of the Mission:Impossible theme would be pretty apropos for that game.

[@si_w8201]

@@CharlieFoxtrot06 no, it needs to be a shit U2 album so anything after that...

[@joeyjojojrshabadoo7462]

Toff bird literally goes around raids tombs. I think it's pretty self-explanatory of British colonialism

[@ArcaneAzmadi]

"A man chooses, a noob mashes buttons." It's tiny throwaway gags like that which make Yahtzee the funniest British-born internet comic in the world.

[@SightForMemories]

well an aussie does what an aussie can..

[@fabricated]

I really liked the fact that choosing to fuck off is the good ending. It's even sort of written smartly because Sergei mostly, but not completely figures out what's up and makes entirely reasonable assumptions- but he doesn't just magically have context for everything like you do as an observer.

[@Brian-tn4cd]

I actually went with that ending first because it felt in character for P3, then replayed to get the "real" ending with the twins boss fight and i just ended up thinking "Fucking off was the better ending XD?"

[@Lyubimov89]

Isn’t the good ending “the big bad genocides the US and brainwashes the whole world”? I guess it’s better than “another big bad just fucking kills everyone” on a pure technicality, but I would hesitate to call either of these a good ending. They are both bad endings in different way and they are also both kinda shitty.

[@vazazell5967]

@@Lyubimov89 brain unity is the best deus ex 2 ending so here's that

[@fabricated]

​@@Brian-tn4cd I just like that it's actually written in a way that doesn't strike me as something a professional game/movie writer would do. Usually this stuff is really cut and dry. Sergei correctly twigs that Charles is manipulating him (and points out the polymer in his head is not Sechenov's invention), and that murdering Sechenov for Zina and "revenge" doesn't solve the problem of what to do with Kollectiv 2.0. It's not like the politburo is gonna just turn it off; they know exactly what it'll do and just wanted the keys. So leave it to Sechenov, even if he manipulated and lied to you because there's even some nuance to why he did that. And the reasoning that Sergei gives is written well- it comes off like he really thought about what he experienced and what he heard and didn't just have the plot beamed into his head. He still clearly doesn't know what he shouldn't know by the story's logic, but he still figures out enough.

[@Lyubimov89]

@@vazazell5967 only in this context, a person who’s directly responsible for thousands of deaths has admin rights. Again, hardly a good ending. It’s NERV’s version of human instrumentality, for Pete’s sake

[@rusticgiraffe4262]

It’s too bad he forgot to mention the protagonist’s totally cool memorable catchphrase that wasn’t annoying at all and definitely wasn’t immediately overused within the first half hour of gameplay.

[@InsomniacStephens141]

"CRisPy CriTTeRs!!!"

[@LineOfThy]

the reason he used it so much is pretty funny tho

[@GeneralNickles]

The ending gag was _so close_ to being a classic "in Soviet Russia" joke.

[@hitotsudaketsukinoko]

Turns out it was a call-back to a previous series with Yahtzee and someone else: "Let's Drown Out" (mentioned in the comment above yours, at least for me).

[@GM-cw9qr]

You mean those "In Soviet Russia, you don't do the thing, the thing does you" jokes? I see their appeal but they're a bit quaint now.

[@OmegaF77]

@@GM-cw9qr In Soviet Russia, Ukraine invades you.

[@MrJustonemorevoice]

Not one mention of the Ballerina twins. You have the willpower of a saint

[@jbiehlable]

Them, Roxanne Wolf and Glamrock Chica can get it.

[@Akivaran]

"...you certainly aren't procrastinating from right now..." hit a little too close to the mark that I'm worried my boss might be having Yahtzee send this message to me.

[@itsgoody9344]

"...so you can go back to your no doubt terribly important professional life you certainly aren't procrastinating from right now..." I hear as I am sitting and eating lunch at my desk at work

[@tartuffle2400]

1:34 Fun fact: i think Andrew Ryan was actually born in the Russian Empire and his name was Andrei Ryanovskiy.

[@WhichWazzockWantedEmailHandles]

He's an expy of Russian-born Ayn Rand, so probably

[@bubbasbigblast8563]

In hindsight, "go home and probably drink" is generally the best ending option in a EuroRPG, so probably should have gone with that...

[@Stroggoii]

It's the common thread among all Euros, from the uber privileged Norwegian to the poor rural Moldovan. Your life is so solved all you need to do now is pursue self-improvement? No, get slammed instead. Your life is so shit the only place you can go now is up? No, get slammed instead.

[@NeuroticPixieSlasher]

3:09 If there was one reference I wasn't expecting to see in popular media in 2023 - it's Brother Rabbit and his only weakness, the briar bush. I don't even remember the last time I remembered it - and those stories were a fundamental part of my childhood: I had an audiocassette of the Uncle Remus stories narrated by Soviet children's theatre actors, to make things even more ironic. Thanks for that absolute sledgehammer of a memory, Yahtz. Haven't played the game yet - only briefly opened it to make sure it runs on my laptop - and that looting mechanic is a balm for loot goblins like myself. As for the protagonist - I found him an absolutely insufferable twat in Russian, too; and to top it off - the voice actor is, to put it mildly, not doing a very good job. His fucking glove is more charismatic than he is. The Chekhov's guns aren't just hanging on the walls - they're illuminated with flashing neon arrows.

[@krishadyn5211]

Folktales are universal!

[@Neatherback]

I feel like the concept for the game was "We want to fight killer robots in a communist utopia gone wrong, now how do we make this make a lick of sense in today's climate?" And then they proceeded to completely miss the mark

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

step 1 would have been to actually stick to what the original hype hinted at. the reason people thought this was "soviet bioshock" was because it seemed to want to go the route of deconstructing the ideology. instead the setting has the depth of a puddle.

[@creed8712]

@@boarfaceswinejaw4516I have a feeling the reason it wasn’t a scathing deconstruction of Russia is because the people making the game didn’t literally want to be shot in the back of the head along with their family over a videogame

[@johnramos8703]

@oreknight but you are,, eryone dumb but me obviously

[@johnramos8703]

@oreknight you lack imagination and you filter your fledgling creativity through a civ of of egotism, very mid

[@peterdisabella2156]

@oreknight Marxism is just as laughable as Rapture's ideology. Let's put our economic, political, and military power under one institution and hope things work out lol.

[@llaffer]

"And each line flows into the next with no pauses..." Where have we heard this before ? :)

[@Invizive]

You could almost say that the game had... _Zero punctuation_

[@chrisrolfe6917]

@@Invizive I'm going to give you a like despite the fact you needed to point out the obvious joke that the rest of us figured out already but didn't feel the need to say.

[@Invizive]

@@chrisrolfe6917 that's specifically what I was going for, thanks

[@chrisrolfe6917]

@@Invizive You're welcome.

[@Wolfrover]

To be fair Yahtzee, the main character is literally brain-damaged. It's an actual plot point: Sergey received so much brain damage that the lead scientist basically had to replace important chunks of grey matter with electronics in order to stop him from going berserk at inconvenient moments. That's why the things he says sometimes make no sense _to the people around him_ , much less to the player. And, yeah, the "forget this, I'm leaving" ending is the good one. It actually ties into the game's connection to _Bioshock_ : "A man chooses. A slave obeys." So when your options are to attack the man who literally saved your life because these people say he's planning something evil... or don't... it's actually pretty reasonable to say, "I can't trust anything _any_ of you say. I'm leaving!"

[@WolfbloodJakeWilliams]

I think that sort of ending might work better in something like Farcry 3 or Spec Ops or even Undertale, games that actually question the morality of 'kill everything with a health bar because you're told to' early in the plot; that way by entering the final boss fight we can actually be judged for ignoring that, they can turn to camera and say 'you just want to see blood and guts? Fine, win the fight and then we'll splatter your main character all over the screen and squish your favourite NPCs, is this satisfying for you?'

[@TheIronArmenianakaGIHaigs]

Crispy Critters. I did like how the powers where on cool downs so you could just spam them non stop. Also the energy weapons using a power source that you didn't get from scavenging

[@mikedawolf95]

I love how Yahtzee represents Jack from BioShock as a guy with an angry face and nice sweater

[@PureGreggy]

At the end of their series "Let's Drown Out" Yahtzee and his friend (Gabe, I think) used to tell a joke. The written joke about the Russian with 3 balls from this vid's end card was one that Gabe told, getting a rare laugh from Yahtzee at the time.

[@AnotherCraig]

Well damn now I need to rewatch those. ... Not to find that particular joke, mind, but just because you reminded me how much fun they were to listen to

[@PureGreggy]

@@AnotherCraig They were great. I wonder how many current ZP fans even know about them.

[@SapphireDragon357]

I sadly couldn't figure out how to pronounce that name and thus didn't get the joke. Could someone explain?

[@PureGreggy]

@@SapphireDragon357 Who'd you nick a bollock off? Nick = steal

[@SapphireDragon357]

@@PureGreggy gotcha, ty

[@filiformis]

5:11 Eastern European culture and media is, to put it lightly, somewhat fatalist.

[@confluxfighter]

Thank you for confirming my viewpoints Yahtzee. Everything was so much fiiiine to me and there was charm but the endless respawning enemies killed my enjoyment.

[@bluemooninthedaylight8073]

I get why people want a fun immersive sim [Who doesn't!], but the more I see of this game, the less I like. Have standards fallen so hard that people have forgotten what makes a great game truly shine?

[@hueylongdong347]

@@bluemooninthedaylight8073 Where have you been for the past, I don't know, 10 years or so?

[@rob98000]

​@@bluemooninthedaylight8073 play prey 2016

[@mrshady8111]

Sort of a late reply but stealth kills stop enemies from respawning. Just kill it normally and stand behind them as the Pchela rebuilds it. You can snap off a sneak kill before it moves and it's done for good.

[@SympleSymon]

​@Mr. Shady8111 the game actively encourages you to crash the system to deactivate all the robots within the radius, too. Do that, and they're all just standing around, easy prey for stealth attacks

[@Anastas1786]

I've been playing with Russian audio and English subtitles. I'm told by native Russian speakers that the main character is a bit abrasive and swears like a teenage boy, but I haven't heard much else about the dialogue quality. It sounds like the protagonist is a bit of an impatient jerk in _every_ language, but the English actor might be pushing that angle a bit too hard. Maybe the language barrier made it hard to give and receive complex, precise vocal direction.

[@Adenrux0]

Your native have never heard how men speak to each other when there are no women or kids (like your native) around.

[@HUNbullseye]

I heard somewhere else too that in original russian langueage the protagonist is at least 10% less of an unbearable twat. But some people use it as some kind of excuse. For a 10$ indie game sure it would be, but for a 60 EUR AAA one it's not, not even an just explanation but a huge fault.

[@jordanj809]

It’s an appeal to this idea that if a piece of foreign media is consumed in the ✨original way✨ it was made, then all of its problems will cease to exist. And if you still don’t like it it’s because you don’t understand it It’s something people do all the time with JRPGs, foreign films, and anime as a way to handwave any and all criticism

[@HUNbullseye]

@@jordanj809 To be fair, with anime it's somewhat legit. Even a decent english dub is mostly way too subtle and even uncanny sometimes for a full on crazyness the characters animation convey. Though Yakuza 7 seemed well dubbed in english, and some anime sounds quite good in hungarian (with a bit more crazyness, but not fully tilted). Also of course Shakespeare is way better in original klingon...

[@fluidthought42]

​@@HUNbullseye The bigger issue with dubs is that VAs have to match the mouth flaps and dialogue pace of the original Japanese performances. Yakuza 7 got around it by actually changing the mouth flaps and pace in the English dub, no doubt easier when most of the dialogue happens in-Engine and is automated. Unfortunately this isn't all that easy in English dubs, although I've noticed some official English dubs have been re-editing to make dialogue flow better, which I find encouraging.

[@shawklan27]

I legit get annoyed when people pull up that idiot excuse as if that changes anything when you understand a word the mc is saying when you're shooting shit

[@bluemooninthedaylight8073]

​@@jordanj809 Yeah, I see that kind of handwaving done with a JRPG that has a sexual moment occur between an adult teacher and teenage student. No amount of cultural understanding is going to make that situation better.

[@jordanj809]

I wonder if faceless sexy robots were an intentional part of the game’s marketing or just something the playerbase latched onto. Cause they’re barely in the game and most of screenshots I’ve seen of them also aren’t actually in the game and are heavily edited

[@SillyPillow]

It's 100% marketing. The guys at the top are (as far as I recall) folks who have been working in marketing and the like, so they know/knew more about marketing than game development

[@The.Orange.Wizard]

I called it that it would be like Resident Evil: Village, the sex appeal stuff in the marketing that everyone latched onto would barely be in it.

[@isaacbrown7829]

Not a fan of the robo twins myself, but in game it makes sense. I'll try to do the spoilers in the "read more" thing youtube has but I may screw it up Alright so in game the big boys have hard ons for ballerinas, and because of the advancing robotics in time ballerinas got replaced with robo ballerinas, why? I can't remember, but what does matter is that you now have all these shapely good dancing robots and a bunch of horny rich folks, that's easy money right there. That's not me making that up, it gets brought up in game once or twice,

[@TheSpeep]

​@@SillyPillowYep, folks with a background in marketing and propaganda.

[@stephensmith7327]

​@@isaacbrown7829 have you heard of a Thermian Argument? A "Thermian Argument" is one that replies to criticism of a text with an in-universe justification for why the thing happens in the text, ignoring the actual argument in order to defend the text.

[@BlackLabelExpat]

Napoleon also chose the wrong ending when he should have turned back early.

[@ArtemyMusha]

With the closing statements, I'm reminded of Yahtzee's good pal Comrade Buggerov.

[@Will-22]

Honestly I enjoyed my time with atomic heart mostly for how surreal it felt. The only way I could describe it to people was imagine watching hunt for red October, while having shots vodka mixed with LSD and having Paul Bettany doing his jarvis voice, sat next to you talking about the joys of communism

[@GasparGa]

I loved the part where they were talking about creating heat resistant plants to terraform Mars. I guess in Soviet Russia Mars is known as a very hot planet

[@Barlakopofai]

Actual heat-resistance or video game heat resistance? Because insulation goes both ways, space shuttles protect from both heat and cold.

[@Stroggoii]

Mars' equatorial regions regularly shoot up to 70ºC.

[@GasparGa]

@@Stroggoii Im pretty sure you meant 70 degrees Fahrenheit, which is around 20 degrees Celsius. Which is the highest temp recorded on Mars, the average is much much much lower than that. The planet is further away from te Sun than Earth and has a thin athmosphere, so its not hard to figure out that its a lot colder

[@Ghorda9]

@@GasparGa mars also has less magnetic shielding against radiation.

[@LineOfThy]

@@GasparGa maybe read the first guy's comment

[@doctorwhors]

The theatre kid in me DEFINITELY recognised the building at 4:36 - the National Theatre (on London’s South Bank)! Nice reference ;)

[@TheMouseMasterYT]

what head did you choose for the protagonist again? Mr. T channeling his inner Zangief, or do I have that backwards?

[@oliviamoore3426]

There are two bad endings. One with the final boss fight and one where Andrew ryanofski brainwash everyone into kollektiv 2.0 the “bad” ending is bad, but humanity have a chance in that one

[@criticismbadger5340]

And then Wagner group marched on Moscow only to turn around before the final boss fight (Moscow), presumably to get the good ending?

[@93MANIAC]

Spoilers the Wagner Group commander did not get the good ending

[@keefe20x6]

At 2:39 I was hoping a picture of Gabe would show. I hope their still good friends

[@Lucios1995]

3:41 I think you can do this in Prey (2017) as well

[@daxitron]

A whole review about this game without a single mention of the robot twins... Damn, I didn't think it was possible.

[@thetruemandalorian2637]

It's only during my "lunch break" that I watch stuff!

[@datastorm17]

Somewhere along the way KZbin did some sort of refresh and randomly unsubbed me from random channels. This was one that I forgot about for years and am delighted to find it again

[@mekman4]

Great Stuff, as always! It’s always good to brush up on a bit of history every now and then. Lest we forget.

[@ashi_no_ko]

When I heard a few lines of dialogue from this game I immediately thought: Yep, those lines were originally written in Russian.

[@xXEGPXx]

I knew the game was going to be lackluster when all of their marketing became "look at the sexy robot ladies". Nothing wrong with having sexy robot ladies in your game, but if the best thing you can say about your game is that two characters that are on screen for a total of 20 minutes are hot then you have a problem.

[@Narsilion098]

So they are basically Soviet Lady Dimiwhateverhername from that one resident evil game?

[@chillhour6155]

Game's can be 7/10's and still be enjoyed and I wouldn't call it lackluster, just jank

[@chillhour6155]

@@Narsilion098 also a shit game, except for the giant baby part

[@RuDenisska]

Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, Overwatch 1, Overwatch 2, Bioshock Infinite, Resident Evil 4, NieR: Automata, Witcher 2, Witcher 3, MGSV, Mortal Combat, Fortnite, Halo and the entire Tomb Raider series - all these games (and many others) are united by the sexualization of living female characters. However, there are robots in Atomic Heart, and apart from all the games I've mentioned, their design is completely story-driven. By the way, they are goddamn robots. The problem isn't sexualization, the problem is you, dirty robosexual pervert;) PS: i don't even wonder if you cheating your wife with Dyson vacuum cleaner. And she knew it. And she approves it.

[@InsomniacStephens141]

Not only that but making those robots the focus of the advertising literally spoils the ending since those scenes are from literally the last 10 minutes of the game

[@TATERplaysGAMES]

For better or worse, I loved the confidence it had to do the things it did. Also not mentioning the soundtrack is a big oof, cause it was one of the highlights of the experience imo.

[@BigBoy-ok3eg]

1:17 didn't have to call me out like that

[@Waffletigercat]

I like that he depicted P-3 as an angry Zangief action figure.

[@Nyghtking]

So from what I heard about the ending, the reason leaving is the good ending is the entire game is spent with your character basically just doing what he's told to do, so in the ending where you leave your character essentially makes their first real choice for themselves and decides that shits fucked, screw this, and screw the people who want you to keep going while telling you nothing or hiding the truth from you. So yeah it's basically "A Man Chooses, A Slave obeys."

[@setcheck67]

Except in Bioshock there wasn't even the illusion of choice as it's entirely linear. It was play the game or don't play the game.

[@burningsnow9870]

When I got to the red jelly monster boss fight I stopped cause it wouldn't spawn and basically locked my game progression. Then I realized I wasn't having fun. The combat was janky and slow, the character was just not fun to listen to, the arm thing was just kinda like a somehow more exposition dumping version of Navi. I wish the game was more show and less tell. We get it, but we can't reflect or appreciate the subtle storytelling when we're being blatted in the face with explanations every 2 seconds

[@Fuuntag]

1:22 thanks!

[@marrubium8559]

Hey I'm really curious about what you would think about Wanted Dead, it's pretty confusing.

[@93MANIAC]

Yeah just ask the Wagner Group commander how well it went for him after he decided not to not fight the final boss

[@awoodenkiwitoy6293]

The character dialog is so apocalyptically bad in this game, but I'm surprised yahtzee didn't mention how aggressively horny it can be alongside it

[@benrig89]

Legit the first time I've seen a Brer Rabbit joke in a youtube video, nicely done

[@dorpth]

4:48 "Slav jank" is the term.

[@Vilamus]

Atomic Heart reminds me of the movie Hardcore Henry, especially with the floating city, protagonist with amnesia and madness towards the end.

[@nottherealpaulsmith]

the main difference is hardcore henry was an amazing film made with no money, and this is a terrible game made with all the money

[@SaulGoodman3D2049]

@@nottherealpaulsmith Both Russian too

[@Metal_Maoist]

Someone's gotta do an actually good soviet retrofuturist game sometime. I feel like that's a niche we haven't really explored enough

[@Graphomite]

what about Wolfenstein?

[@SaulGoodman3D2049]

Arguably, Disco Elysium, though it leans far more heavily onto the retro than the futurism.

[@logon-oe6un]

On the other hand, it doesn't feel like there is enough unexplored space in the aforementioned niche to make a new game that isn't full of already explored flaws.

[@thedudewhoeatspianos]

I don't require the acting and dialogue in a game to be amazing. This didn't need to be Disco Elysium. But it was so awful that it bounced me off the game pretty quickly tbh.

[@oliverliu5065]

To be fair Russian dubbing is okay. In fact I think any language in this game sounds better than English. Maybe it’s a Russian thing.

[@viljamtheninja]

@@oliverliu5065 This is why original language + subtitles will always be better. Because then you 1) have a harder time noticing poor acting (particularly as far as phrasing and intonation etc goes) in a language you don't understand, and more importantly, 2) because then you tend to have a director or someone with an understanding of the ideas behind the script and so on that can direct the actors.

[@manzanito3652]

​@@oliverliu5065 It's because poor acting is harder to notice in a language you don't understand.

[@TheOneGreat]

​@@viljamtheninja How about no? I'd rather have a poorly translated dub than a language I don't understand while being confined to the lower part of the screen. No, thank you.

[@T4gProd]

@@viljamtheninja This is why I always try to play with the language the game characters should be speaking. Metro games in Russian, Plague tales in French for example. I speak passable French and it's a game made in France, so I noticed that the writing is much more nuanced and just plain better in French than in translated English. Also muh Immersion for having the correct language spoken in game.

[@pixeldotgaming8454]

There’s a chirper you find fairly early on (“Monday starts on Sunday?”), where it admonishes employees for working on a weekend stating that people who do will receive punishment and not reward… Wonder if that’s a hint for the ending?? 😂

[@P3t3rminator]

The pro-Tsar water was my favorite :D

[@absoul112]

I wonder how many people saying the Russian voice acting sounds better say it in part because the language barrier makes it easier to enjoy.

[@Invizive]

As a Russian speaker, the game does indeed sound better in Russian due to traditionally shitty localization practices. Its text does, however, also seem to be inspired by a rather heavyweight Russian literature style, including contemporary authors, and its use in an action genre definitely hurts AH as a game. I treat it as a selfish indulgence of the authors that gives the game a "soul" and some feeling of warmth and understanding to people more familiar with broad context - but at a cost of making experience more confusing and boring to everyone else.

[@absoul112]

@@Invizive it’s interesting to hear what the style of the game’s writing is. I have to ask, what do you mean by “traditionally shitty localization practices”?

[@Invizive]

@@absoul112 for some reason it is believed among ENG-RU translators that Western and Russian cultures are too different to keep some phrases as they are in the original, so you need to try to localize the meaning, not just translate the text, ending up with a ton of obscure phraseologisms being used. However, they also try to keep the structure the same. As expected, the end product fails at both spectacularly. I believe something like this happened to early JP-EN translations too, though not sure. I've spotted many instances where keeping the original phrases - or even keeping entire words untranslated - could make English dialogue much easier on the ears, even endearing at places. Also the punchline of the protagonist talking and behaving the way he does (pretty much because of brain damage) being hidden on one of the computer notes in the end of the 20h game was very brave, but definitely not appreciated by players.

[@absoul112]

@@Invizive Yeah that's pretty terrible. Seriously though putting the info of the main character on a computer note near the end of the game?

[@Invizive]

@@absoul112 his "catchphrase" and erratic behavior are explained in clinical logs in pretty much the last location where lore could be found - in a corner among a dozen of other computers...

[@Caribeancrysis]

I gotta say, localization in this game really falls short of Russian dub. Original MC voice is more emotional, although still is an asshole. But to justify that, he fits almost perfectly into a Russian cliche of a special ops soldier. Focused on the task, lacking in curiocity outside of his area of expertise, absurdly loyal to his direct superior and looking down on civilians just for being civilians.

[@Rubicon-23]

As a Zangief main, I love this video.

[@kaptenteo]

Apparently, the main character was written for a completely different game, which is likely part of the reason he feels so mismatched.

[@dhawthorne1634]

Just curious. Was the use of telephones to signify a hive mind a deliberate visual gag referencing Cybermen? Because now you DO have to explain your stance on Irish Sectarian Violence and subsequently on ISV's failure to publish updates for opensource software after the original author releases a patch.

[@vincevalentine2407]

1:18 im feeling personally attacked.

[@jackmanson2719]

My impression of the plot was the robots found the flaws in the communist philosophy

[@MattTester]

Appropriately enough I just finished watching a playthrough, crispy critters I want that time back. I'm very glad I didn't waste my time playing it.

[@shawklan27]

To think I bought game pass just for this. But atleast I was able to try hi fi rush because that game is legit goty material

[@ivanwilliams7413]

My love of Jamiroquai had me slightly confused at your avatars signage, lol.

[@Zeconful]

Love what you do Yahtzee! Don't let them take your teeth! I've been with ya for over a decade and you've consistently made me laugh with your witty willy-based humor. Thank you!

[@jonnyb2020]

I do wonder when people get political about all this (especially when it comes to shooters) if anyone played ANY Wolfenstein game… and then I think, has anyone played a GAME at all and thought this is a game and is in fact not real, so I’ll either enjoy it or not play it… this world is a mess 🙄

[@hawkins347]

It's not about the content, it's about the fact that it was bankrolled by Russian government via proxy, the company "moved" to Cyprus to dodge sanctions, and supposedly it's being used to spy on Russians.

[@gwen9939]

Wolfenstein isn't directly funding anyone who is currently committing atrocities though. I don't think you understand the difference between a political message within the fiction of a game and the political implications of financially supporting a product that has ties to political actions. Enjoy living your entire life under that rock of yours for all I care, but sticking your head out to mention how little you care and how little you think everyone else should care just makes you seem silly and moralizing.

[@jonnyb2020]

@@gwen9939 so anytime you purchase a game from a British, French, German, most certainly American and pretty much any publisher in the world, that money DIRECTLY gets tax deducted from the companies earnings into the government spend, all countries listed above and many more have committed utter atrocities in their history! Your comment is beyond naive and just shows how preposterously blinkered the world is! Do me and yourself a massive favour and get a grip! Cheers

[@lowpointfair4653]

Anything thing russian anything puttin related is pretty hated right now for good reason.

[@Acnorix]

As flawed as this game was, I really did enjoy eurojank Bioshock. And frankly, they could have done a lot worse as their first game.

[@amyshaw893]

ive not played this or bioshock, and the only thing i could think of when hearing about this game was that it sounded a lot like what id heard about bioshock

[@SageofStars]

5:06 That is the BEST ending in the history of video games, and you will respect our feline overlords!

[@Coreisus]

Lol. Remember when Yahtzee used to be aware of things and opposed the bullshit? Now he blatantly regurgitates the PC talking points!

[@puppet23ca]

Fun fact brought to us from Bioshock: Rapture the prequel novel most people have probably not read but Andrew Ryan's birth name was actually Andrei Rianofski and he was originally from Russia. I dunno it makes it that much funnier when labeling Atomic Heart as Russian Bootleg Bioshock in my opinion anyway

[@augustvalek]

the sarcasm is so acid it melted my headphones, I love it

[@vitortrindade5617]

This ending switchup just makes me more interested

[@Oscar_Myk]

is there an option for Russian v/o and English subtitles?

[@Mutantvine]

Yes, and from what I've heard, it's generally recommended

[@spas9001]

@@Mutantvine That's how I played the Metro games

[@lucifermorningstar8387]

The game fumbled with eng main character va. He sounds cheesy, often having no emotions when faced with life-and-death situations. Dont get me started on his over the top curses for robots. I’d definitely rec you to switch to russian v/o with subtitles

[@tree427]

russian voices means i gotta read though

[@si_w8201]

@@tree427 I'm sure someone can teach you how...

[@skeletonking2501]

The thing that makes me mildly sad is seeing the very early concept work and seeing how fucking surreal they were. Feels like the modern version is missing a bit of that.

[@richardmcdonald4741]

I didnt get passed the 1st boss, 20 second fight, 3 min loading screen, must be my kryptonite

[@Mrjacharles]

Dude love how you animated this you made this review so fun xD

[@shaunmccomish8572]

"Would you kindly... watch Yahtzee review a game and use its name for a joke which is actually more funny than it should be?" A Bioshock like game set in an alternative Soviet run future is actually an interesting idea. Shame it sounds like the execution didn't really work out. Then again, Bioshock: Infinite hasn't exactly aged that well in retrospect. A load of interesting ideas for story and game mechanics don't always add up sadly.

[@XSpamDragonX]

I definitely found the voice acting a lot better in Russian, but the writing was still kinda annoying. Also the constant swearing and bootlicking is a fantastic parody of Soviet propaganda heroes. Anyone who knows anything about life in the Soviet Union can tell you the worldbuilding is absolutely fantastic though. I really enjoyed the themes but the cliche gameplay loop with it's brutally punishing crafting economy got too exhausting to keep me engaged.

[@beboxit]

4:25 is that a Hades reference!? YARE YARE DAZE!

[@CAP198462]

Here’s a question, your assistant character in the game, are they trying more to be: Wheatley from Portal 2, or Dinklebot from Destiny 2?

[@PiePie453]

Long time to not talk about the sexy robots tbh

[@perianh]

I can assure you that in original localization the main character is even more insufferable than in english. And to top it off - basically every other character is terribly voiced, like the actors didn't even try to put an effort in and just did it during a lunch break.

[@CodingItWrong]

Came here for the comment about the Speak-and-Spell but amazed I didn't find it. Each line runs directly into the next, eh, Yahtz?

[@itsloading4ever]

1:33 Fun fact: Andrew Ryan was actually born Andrei Rianofski in Russia. When he left Russia to go to America, he decided to Americanize his name.

[@maxresdefault_]

"Spay JK" is such a perfect picket sign I don't know why I hadn't seen it until now

[@longdongsilver3267]

Nothing really to say, but I enjoyed this video. Thanks for making and sharing it.